WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) – A judge on has granted temporary guardianship to the husband of a woman on a feeding tube in a case similar to the lengthy legal dispute over whether Terri Schiavo should be kept alive.
Karen Weber, 57, has been in and out of a nursing home and hospital since having a stroke in December.
She is now hospitalized on a feeding tube in Okeechobee and suffering from meningitis, her mother, Martha Tatro, said Wednesday.
Weber's husband, Raymond, sought earlier this year to have the feeding tube removed and his wife transferred to a hospice ward, where she would likely die.
He says she is in a vegetative state and would not want to live this way. But Weber's mother is fighting to keep her alive, arguing she has been alert and responsive at times and doesn't want to die.
She said that during visits with her daughter in March and April, Weber was aware and used body language to communicate.
"She had her faculties and she made it clear that she did not want her feeding tube removed," Tatro said after Wednesday's hearing in Okeechobee. "She could laugh and she could giggle and she could shake her head yes and no."
Since then, Weber's condition has deteriorated, but Tatro remains confident she can recover.
Despite Wednesday's guardianship order, an injunction that the judge issued in March to prohibit the feeding tube's removal remains in place.
"The injunction says he (Raymond Weber) has to adhere to reasonable medical advice, but he can make those decisions as long as the feeding tube and ventilator are kept in place," said John Cook, an attorney appointed by the court to represent Karen Weber, who does not have a living will and cannot talk.
Tatro had been given temporary emergency guardianship over her daughter last week, but the judge on Wednesday handed it to Weber's husband, pending another guardianship hearing next week at which Tatro's attorney plans to bring in medical experts.
"I feel much better with the judge's ruling," Raymond Weber said Wednesday. He declined to comment further.
His attorney, Colin Cameron, did not immediately return a telephone message.
The arguments in this case are similar to those made over Schiavo, whose husband wanted her feeding tube removed against the wishes of her parents.
Congress passed a bill that allowed a federal court to intervene. President Bush later signed the bill into law, but the Supreme Court sided with the husband. Schiavo was diagnosed as being in a persistent vegetative state after her heart stopped in 1990.
She died amid protests outside her hospice in 2005 after her husband prevailed in the polarizing dispute.
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This is not murder, this is a quality of life issue as well as a personal issue. Was this woman a Christian? Can she still react? Would she have honeslty wanted to live as a vegetable? I cannot speak for her or her husband, but my guess would be no. I am sorry but they are Husband and Wife and to try to intervene in a case such as this (even if you are the monther) is just not your place any longer. They are one family unit under God and they know what is best for each other and should act with that in mind. I see the mother as being selfish that she wants her daughter to be around as long as possible for her own benefit, not for the daughter. If this family has any faith at all, that alone should comfort them in the knowledge that they will be reunited one day in heaven. If anything i would pray that the lord take his child swiftly into heaven and welcome her with open arms away from the pain and aguish that is this world.
we know terry was murdered.
and looks like this husband wants to exterminate his wife also.
Father in the name of Jesus, please help us to see as you do. All Life is precious and all we have to do is ask and you will provide, in this case and all of them. Just a little Faith can move mountains, i know you will move if we just ask. Amen.